Great Western Coffee Shop

Welcome to the Great Western Coffee Shop forum's Advent Quiz.  I am your quizmaster for the month, and each day I'll be posting something here on our "lighter side" board to get you looking, thinking, perhaps wondering or laughing - and I hope answering too. If you're not a forum member, please do sign up and join us (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?action=register) (it's totally free), and that way you'll be able (more than able - welcome) to contribute to this thread, and indeed our other threads and start new topics yourself.

Most of these daily "lighter side" posting will come from me as your quizmaster, but on some days I'll be welcoming guest quizprinces or quizprincesses - give you a bit of variety, me a bit of a break as instigator.  More volunteers for this royally fun role, from our frequent posters, will be very much welcome - just send me a personal message and don't be shy.  I am happy to talk through how it's done, host any images involved, and provide as much or as little help as you wish.

Let's start - Wednesday 1st December 2021 - with a "classic" where is this quiz.  You'll find a number of images below and the simple question is "where was this taken".  Please post an answer to one picture only below as a follow up "reply", and I'll come back with a yes/no or perhaps (at busy times, initially just a 'like'). If you're not correct, by all means have another go but otherwise we ask you to answer just one picture in the first 24 hours, even if you're bursting to tell us more, to give everyone a chance.  After a day is up, members are welcome to fill in anything that remains to be answered.

The majority of pictures in a classic quiz are taken in the area served by our friends at Great Western Railway and South Western Railway (though at times the "test" that friendship!!), but you'll find a sprinkling from elsewhere in the UK and even - sometimes - beyond. You'll also find other pieces of transport and infrastructure as well as just trains and tracks.  Enjoy!

Right - lets's go:

1.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/aq_2101_1.jpg)

2. TonyT
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/aq_2101_2.jpg)

3. Prestbury Road (identifying member, not photo location!)
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/aq_2101_3.jpg)

4. Birdie100
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/aq_2101_4.jpg)

5. PhilWakely
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/aq_2101_5.jpg)

6. brooklet
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/aq_2101_6.jpg)

7. eightonedee
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/aq_2101_7.jpg)

P.S. It has been traditional in these quizzes to have a picture of Taunton and a picture of Melksham to identify.  Whilst I'm sure that both will turn up at some point during the month, having them both appear in every quiz is getting long in the tooth, and I'm running out of new pictures of those locations too. 

You may find a few pictures of South Western Railways Waterloo to Bristol Temple Meads service, which sadly ceases later this month in spite of 6,186 petitioning for its retention - and you can still add your name to the cry of disgust at the perverse decision to cull this service that's used by a lot of people (when SWR can find the staff to run it - they don't have enough for Saturdays any longer) at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/598397 . Anyway - this is "the lighter side" and not Campaigns for new and improved services (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/b28) which should perhaps be renamed "Campaigns to retain, improve and add to services" as we seem to be headed towards a new era in which we're told all services need to wash their hands commercially - and that could mean that the Serpell report (a sort of double-Beeching) is back on the table.

Number 4 is Reading!

Nice to see in 3 some of the new seating installed on SWR stations. Far better than the perforated metal, which are all the wrong height for my arthritic bones and haveno arm rest to allow me to get up again.

5. Dawlish

But is that an SWR Station?  :D



And correct in both cases

3 I guess is Didcot.  Thanks for the hint - I noticed the "ML" (Main Line as opposed to relief line I guess) on the OHLE post and remembered that I'd seen that same notation elsewhere on the recent GWR electrification.  So the train would be on the Up Main heading towards Paddington.

Correct - I dropped back from one train to another there last month and did a Zoom session via my mobile phone from the quiet waiting room, as I thought the people on the train would not have appreciated being in on it.

Just 1, 2, 6 and 7 to go, then.   I am NOT putting the answers on top as they are revealed - just for today's quiz - because I am giving the quiz some social media exposure to introduce us to new potential members, and I really don't want to spoil the fun for them by dropping in spoilers.

I think 6 is Willesden TMD.

7 looks like the Waterloo end of "the Drain" (Waterloo & City)

 ??? Was Queens Park but then I saw the overheads…

6. Looks like the carriage sheds just south of Crewe station.

Yes, it is ...

Sorry - neither Willesden nor Queen's Park.  I think the train in the picture was on a delivery run


Yes, it is!

2, Harpenden

Interestingly, the year prior to the Serpell Report saw the lowest number of passenger journeys of the second half of the 20th century, the lowest level of passenger miles, and the lowest level of passenger revenue for 14 years.

Serpell also cut his teeth as a Treasury mandarin, moving to the Ministry of Transport, ultimately becoming Permanent Secretary, and being around to implement some of the Beeching cuts.

He therefore would have had much the same background, experience and attitude as those who currently wield ultimate decision-making power over today's rail network.

Just one as yet unidentified.  Anyone??

1.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/aq_2101_1.jpg)

It’s a guess; Southampton Central

It's a CORRECT guess. 

I have learned with these quizzes that trains in their station environment go quickly, with station infrastructure coming second, internal shots of optional buildings (places you can visit but are not obligatory, such as waiting rooms and buffets) come third, and pictures of the locale even within a short distance of the station come last!  So this one was tricky in the third degree!